


What If...? - No. 4 - Pick Your Poison

by ImperfectOrphanage



Category: Subarashiki Kono Sekai | The World Ends With You
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-17
Updated: 2017-01-17
Packaged: 2018-09-18 05:41:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9370661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImperfectOrphanage/pseuds/ImperfectOrphanage
Summary: ...what does Joshua keep in all of those bottles in the Pad?





	

 

Neku had been to the Pad several times over the last couple of months. He’d received the open invitation to visit by Joshua coming to his house for dinner unannounced. It wasn’t surprising since Joshua was an asshole and an imposing one at that.

A day like any other day, after school and a light snack, Neku had been playing video games with Joshua for three hours before asking.

“What’s in the bottles?”

Joshua frowned. He couldn’t quite seem to get his kart to stay on the track. “What bottles?”

“Those,” Neku shrugged a shoulder in the direction of the bar, “you’re kinda young, aren’t you?”

“Oh, those,” the Composer said nonchalantly. “The souls of the damned.”

Neku snorted. “Hilarious. But seriously, Josh.”

He turned to Neku with a curious expression. “You don’t believe me?”

“No offense, Josh, but you twist the truth until it damn near snaps in half.”

Joshua hit the pause button on the controller and sat it on the short, glass table. He rose without a word and crossed the room to survey the bottles. His fingers trailed along the sides of the glass.

“What’s your poison?”

“I don’t drink,” Neku said. He set his controller next to Joshua’s.

“I told you, it isn’t alcohol. How are your studies? How is your art? Do you need a touch of inspiration or a perhaps a new skill?”

Neku moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with Joshua. “Huh?”

Taking a round, fat blue bottle from the shelf, Joshua uncorked it with his fingers and sniffed. “Mm, a perfect vintage. Ninety-eighty-seven, I believe. Here, take a sniff. You’ll like it.”

“I don’t know about that,” Neku said. He pointed his nose at the bottle and the scent of lilacs and honey soap filled the air. Inside of the bottle was a squirming, pink liquid, and when Neku put his eye to the bottle’s opening, he recoiled in horror. “There’s a person in there!”

Joshua took a sip from the bottle. “I told you, Neku. These bottles house the souls of the dead. Also, there are some treats in the drawers. Why not take a look?”

“Uh, no thanks. I don’t think I want-“ Neku shook his head. “You sipped at it. You just drank a person, holy shit.”

“It’s delicious,” Joshua said as if it were obvious. He corked the bottle and set it back on the shelf before digging in one of the wooden drawers below. “Let’s see-painting, sketching, and sewing. Which would you like?”

Neku bent over the drawer. It was filled with wrapped chocolate bars labeled with skills and creative talents. Against his judgment he took one that said musical ability. “Okay, so I eat this and I get this?”

“If you want.”

He wasn’t sure. The wrapper crinkled as he tore the top open and the smell of bitter chocolate tickled his senses. He gave Joshua a look before biting a small square from the end.

It melted on contact to his tongue. Neku hummed and swallowed. “Not bad.”

“Wait for it,” Joshua whispered.

A headache bloomed behind Neku’s eyes and he dropped the chocolate back into the drawer before cradling his head. He cursed and backed into the corner of the bar to wince and rub at his eyes. Information flooded his mind and Neku could hear the sound of violins. He could see notes and he could feel the vibration of strings at the tips of his fingers.

“What the fuck was that?”

Joshua wrapped the chocolate bar back up. He closed the drawer and offered Neku a sip from a smaller, light pink bottle.

It didn’t register at first. Neku was too thirsty not to think and he took a swig from the bottle before coughing and gagging at the memory that he was drinking a dead person.

“I suppose you are far too human to handle more than this. Come, Neku, take a seat.”

Neku scrunched his eyes up and allowed Joshua to lead him to the couch to sit down. His head still ached and the music echoed in his ears, but the taste of the wine-er, soul-soothed the pain. He rubbed at his temples and glared at Joshua. “The fuck.”

“I like to keep Entrance Fees and people who are amusing to me. If I need a hint of inspiration I take a sip of an Erased Player and a nip of chocolate.” Joshua grinned. He picked his controller back up as if nothing was wrong and he waited for Neku. “Come on, Neku. It’s the Rainbow Road.”

“Fuck you and your rainbows.” Neku scooted over on the couch. “You keep people in bottles and whatever the hell those bars of chocolate are like it’s not something weird. How can you just stuff someone in a bottle and leave it?”

Joshua blinked slowly. He sighed and set the controller down before turning to face Neku. “I am a Composer and they chose to play my Game. The Composer is allowed to do whatever they wish with the simple minded souls who lose. I don’t keep all of them. I only keep the ones I find interesting.”

“It’s sick, Josh. They don’t deserve to suffer-“

“Who says they’re suffering?” Joshua smiled peacefully. “Oh, Neku. You assume so much. I’m not the cruel monster you make me out to be. For those precious Players, life is a dream. If they were unhappy the taste would be horrible.”

“But what,” Neku swallowed, wiped his mouth with his wristband, and continued to glare, “happens to them after they’re gone?”

Joshua folded his hands in his lap and exhaled as if Neku was bothering him. “I ingest them and use their energy to better Shibuya. The core of their soul will be incarnated into the UG as Noise and eventually, once they have reached a certain point, they can ascend and have another chance at human life.”

“It’s still wrong,” Neku said. He felt sick.

“You are far too innocent.” Joshua pecked him on the cheek. “I hope one day you will understand how disposable humanity is.”

“I hope not,” Neku replied, wiping his hand over his cheek, “and stop kissing me.”

“No,” Joshua said, unpausing the game to continue racing. “Ah-ha! I now have a blue shell. You are about to be Erased, Neku Sakuraba.”

Neku watched him. He didn’t take his controller. “Josh?”

“Hm?” The Composer didn’t turn his attention from the game. “What, Neku?”

“I hope one day you won’t be afraid to get hurt.”

Joshua slowly turned to stare at Neku. The game ended with them both losing. “Neku, I’m not afraid to get hurt. I simply don’t care about people as much as you. A single person might bring me joy but the collection of humanity is a useless sore on the face of Shibuya.”

“Harsh.” Neku put his head in his hands and leaned his elbows on his knees. “I don’t like people either but I don’t think they’re that full of fail.”

“Neku?”

He glanced at Joshua. The boy was looking at the fish below.

“I do like you. Perhaps,” he licked his lips, “one day you will change my mind.”

Neku grinned. He picked his controller up and jabbed Joshua in the ribs. “Rematch?”

Bright eyes and a wide smile were his response, along with a playful, “I will destroy you.”

“I’d like to see that,” Neku teased. They started a new race. Neku threw random looks at Joshua only to see the Composer smiling with a spark of light in his eyes.

Maybe there was hope. Or maybe Joshua would stay the same.

But if Neku had his way, Shibuya wouldn’t be the only thing he changed for the better.


End file.
